


I Ignore You

by Kira_Dattei



Series: Developing Relationship Kinktober 2018 [24]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AO3 FB Challenge, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Feelings, M/M, Working things out, separated couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 06:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16402832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: It's been weeks since Stiles walked out on their relationship and Derek is looking to get over it. He calls on a friend to help him with this, but the help he gets isn't what he expected. It was what he needed, though.





	I Ignore You

**Author's Note:**

> Day 24 of Developing Relationship is posted just in time for the end of the day.  
> I meant to post this the day after the previous part (day 22), but it was far from finished. Now it's finished and it's going to end up being finished under a third prompt instead of with this one, so be warned.  
> I'll be going through and editing all the Kinktober fics once the month is over so in the meantime I apologize for any mistakes.  
> Hope you enjoy.

Derek didn’t know why he even bothered looking at his phone when he got a text anymore. He knew who it was from. But he still pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen.

_Stiles Stilinski_

_76 Unread Messages_

He was starting to feel extremely guilty about how long he’d just let them come in without even opening them, without giving Stiles a few seconds of his time just because he was too chickenshit to see what Stiles was saying.

It was three weeks since their argument, since Derek didn’t really have a better way of putting it despite the lack of a fight he put up. And he didn’t really want to call it a breakup because he couldn’t admit to himself that he’d pushed Stiles to that by not just manning up to his feelings.

His phone chimed again at another text.

_Stiles Stilinski_

_77 Unread Messages_

Stiles had been radio silent for two days after that night and Derek hadn’t bothered trying to send him anything. And those days had been slow, Derek getting through them listlessly as he just repeated the conversation in his head, trying to find what he could have done differently, then berating himself because he knew exactly where he’d gone wrong.

He’d avoided going home because he didn’t want to be around the fading smell of Stiles and end up doing something he’d regret later. He still spent the night hugging the blankets and pillows that smelled of Stiles to his nose for the slightest bit of comfort so he could fall asleep. He felt like even that had been way beyond what was appropriate; he’d just gotten entirely accustomed to Stiles being at his side, no matter that they only spent the weekends together.

Then, once Stiles’ scent was really fading from Derek’s apartment, he’d started texting him. Derek hadn’t read the first one, the text coming in at a time he’d usually be asleep – he wondered if that had been on purpose or just Stiles dealing with a night of poor sleep – and he’d just stared at his phone for five minutes before he slapped it down onto his bed and turned away from it, ignoring it until the morning. When he looked at it again, Stiles had sent one more text.

The daily number had been gradually increasing as the days passed. It was to the point that it was more reminiscent of the days when texting made up the majority of their communication when Stiles just texted him random thoughts and observations. He wondered if that’s what they had become and he was missing out on Stiles’ day when he didn’t have to.

Because Stiles wouldn’t text him like that if he was still pissed at him.

But Derek had been wrong and he hadn’t taken any steps toward fixing things. Absolutely none. He was still the same as he’d been when Stiles had walked out his door.

He was almost waiting for Stiles to burst through his door and tell him to grow the hell up because this was ridiculous. Because there was still that part of him, the part that was really responsible for him not looking at those messages, that wondered if Stiles was just texting him every time he thought of a new insult to throw at him. It didn’t matter that he didn’t think that was something Stiles would seriously do.

He never said it was a reasonable part: just extremely influential.

By the time he left work and headed home, he had three more messages and he was wondering if he should put himself out of his misery and change his number. Because blocking the number wasn’t enough: Stiles wouldn’t move on from him as long as he wasted time texting him.

His vision sharpened briefly, indicating his eyes had flashed and he was grateful he’d stepped outside and already had sunglasses on to cover it up.

Fine, it was too soon to be thinking about Stiles with someone else, even in passing.

He let out an irritated growl as he considered what he could do to help get past this. His list of options was pathetically short. He had a very small social circle – mostly comprised of people he’d met through Stiles so he figured they weren’t an option, considering the circumstances – and he was exhausting his ability to work through it on his own.

They’d never met, but maybe if he talked to Boyd about it. Boyd was surprisingly good at that sort of thing, about knowing what to say to get Derek to make progress on any problems he decided to share. They were friends, no matter that Derek hadn’t seen him in a few years.

He’d call him once he got home.

He got four more messages as he was on his way home, likely Stiles taking advantage of knowing his schedule and knowing he was more likely to get Derek to respond.

Instead, Derek had pulled up Boyd’s contact and had shot him a message to warn him that he was planning on calling and to let him know if he needed to wait for him to be available.

He didn’t even bother looking at his phone again until he was at home and had taken a quick shower to ease some of the tension that had built up throughout the day – like he was having to do every day now. When he looked, he saw that only one of the texts had been from Stiles, while one had been from Boyd, and the last two had been from Scott, giving him yet another person to ignore in dealing with this. And no matter what Stiles was sending him, Scott was likely to only be pissed at him and if he wanted to get some verbal abuse, he’d let his mind go to town on himself.

He let out a sigh as he pulled up the message from Boyd, feeling a rush of relief when he saw that Boyd was just letting him know that he was off work for the night and was able to talk whenever Derek wanted to call.

He hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted Boyd to be able to talk, that he’d gotten so attached to the prospect so quickly.

He dialed as he sat down in the corner of his couch, holding it up to his ear as he relaxed back against the cushion. It rang once before the line connected and he heard Boyd’s low voice greet him, “Hey, Derek. Long time since we talked.”

No accusation – because it was just as easy for Boyd to pick up the phone and call him – just making a statement to get them started.

“Yeah. I’ve missed talking to you,” Derek replied easily, able to reveal that much to someone he’d known well for so many years.

“Missed you, too.” Derek didn’t need chemosignals or the ability to hear heartbeats to know that had been the truth. “What’s up? Need my unparalleled wisdom to get you through your day?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, don’t leave me in suspense, man. It was enough to break our dry spell talking to each other so it must be good.”

Derek took in a deep breath, collecting his thoughts as he should have done before he got on the phone. “So, I met someone,” he started.

“Really? Have you gotten past the stage of staring at them awkwardly? You know, the one that makes them call the cops?” Boyd asked when Derek stalled out for a few seconds.

“Shut up,” he growled, amused. “We went out for about four months.”

Boyd hesitated at that, Derek catching the sound of his heart beating in surprise before he calmed himself. “Tell me,” he simply prompted.

“We met, we liked each other, we started going out.” Boyd gave a short hum of acknowledgement and Derek knew he was looking for more, which was fair: that wasn’t really anything to work with. “He’s an intern with the FBI, so that tells you how smart he is. But he’s a good guy besides that, like he’s getting into that work for the right reasons. He’s…I don’t know, he’s actually pretty hard to describe. I swear I’ve never met anyone like him.”

He’d gotten a little lost reminiscing about Stiles. He’d never really had to describe Stiles to anyone and he’d just realized that he didn’t think it was something he may ever have figured out to do. Stiles really just was one of a kind and so that made it impossible to describe by comparison.

“Four months is serious, Derek,” Boyd replied once he realized that Derek was done trying to describe Stiles.

“I know. We didn’t get much time together because of work and living a ways away from each other, but we spent most weekends together.”

“You go to his place?”

Derek knew why Boyd was asking that clarification.

“Usually mine. His place wasn’t very big and a lot of interns were living there so it wasn’t the most maintained place. Not the dorms, but close enough.”

“Right, because you invite people into your place because it’s more convenient,” Boyd shot back sarcastically. Derek was going to have to give him something to indicate why he called him soon or Boyd would switch to direct questioning and wouldn’t let him get out of avoiding any answers.

“He’s not staying to work in D.C.” he rushed to say before he could find an excuse not to.

He sucked when it came to talking.

“I see. Did he already have the office he wanted to work for picked out when he started his internship?” Boyd asked and Derek heard how he was being careful.

“Yeah, he’s going back home.”

“And?”

Derek held in a growl, frustrated with himself for making Boyd push him like this. “He’s from California. A couple counties away from home. Close enough that he might have been within my family’s territory if we’d stayed there.”

Boyd hesitated for much longer this time and Derek let him take his time. He needed Boyd to pick the direction he’d take this if he wanted him to help.

It was nearly a minute later when Boyd finally asked, “What happened? Why did you want to talk to me?”

Derek took a few deep breaths, focusing on his own heartrate and calming it down before answering. “It was a few weeks ago. He mentioned that he was finishing up his internship and that he was going back to California. He wanted to know what I wanted to do, if I was going to go with him since I don’t really have anything holding me here. He left and we haven’t talked since,”

“Would you?” Boyd asked. Derek responded with an inquisitive sound, not sure what he was going for. “If it wasn’t California, would you have moved with him?”

Derek had to bite his tongue to keep from saying “yes,” the answer came to mind so easily.

“Fine, I’ll start easier than that. Did he actually break up with you or are you just taking the easy way out so you don’t have to tell him what happened?”

Derek knew he was actually blushing now. “He actually knows already. I told him.”

“What?” Boyd deadpanned, but Derek heard the uptick of his heartrate which gave away his surprise.

“He already knew about our kind; his friend was bitten. He’d actually dealt with plenty of creatures over the past few years and he pegged me for what I am. Then I just ended up telling him about what happened.”

Another pause from Boyd. “Derek, that makes a huge difference. You’ve only told me about the hunters and the fire. Why is he so different?”

“He just is.”

“And you let him walk out? You let the fact that he lives in California make a difference? Derek, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“Because I’m not ready to face what happened, not like moving back there would mean. I need distance.”

Boyd took in a deep calming breath before speaking again. “Don’t respond to this, just hear it: you don’t _need_ distance, you just want it. Have you talked at all since the argument?”

It was just like Boyd to slip in feedback like that and moving on before he could say anything to refute it. And it was usually those words that came to Derek before he went to sleep and he found helping him more than anything.

“No, we haven’t actually talked. He started texting me a few days after the break up, but I haven’t looked at them. I didn’t want to read them if they were, you know, shitty.”

“Even I know that’s just an excuse to not risk him saying something you need to hear. The fact that you were with him for so long and how you can’t describe him tells me he’s not the sort of person who would keep texting you just to insult or talk down to you. Read his texts, Derek. You owe him that much for ignoring him for weeks. No one deserves that.”

“Right,” Derek mumbled in response, feeling scolded but a bit content: this was why he’d wanted to talk to Boyd, so he could get some clarity between his thoughts, his feelings, and his actions.

“And just because you didn’t say anything doesn’t mean I don’t know what your answer was about if you’d go with him if it wasn’t California. So, the next thing I just want you to think about is this: will you ever look at what happened and be proud of letting him go?”

Derek’s breath caught and his head fell back against the back of the couch. He didn’t have to put much thought into that to know the answer.

“So, what exactly did he say? Did he say you two were breaking up?”

Derek thought back to that night as he’d been avoiding since Stiles walked out. He took a few moments to really go over what they’d said to each other. More importantly, he thought carefully about what Stiles had said.

Thinking back now, he realized that he’d been in such a panic about Stiles leaving like he had that he hadn’t really heard what Stiles had actually said. He’d already started ignoring him, apparently.

And he’d missed perhaps the most important thing that they hadn’t said to each other yet.

“He said he loved me,” he said in a low, awed voice, Boyd’s werewolf hearing the only thing that would have allowed him to catch what he’d said.

“Then he really did say everything that mattered.”

“And I missed it,” Derek added, still not over that he’d completely missed it. And knowing that it had been said seemed to make all the difference. Sure, he likely would have still needed Boyd to help him, to tell him things in a way that Stiles didn’t know how to – yet – but this really was the one thing that made what was between them as deep as it had been. He knew he’d loved Stiles, that he _still_ loved Stiles, but to have Stiles say that he returned the feeling removed every argument he had made for himself as a reason to think that there was not as much commitment on Stiles’ side.

“Read his texts, Derek. I’m pretty sure you’ll figure things out by the time you’re finished. And I’ll make you a deal.”

“What?” Derek snapped out of it a bit to focus back on his friend.

“You move, I’ll move there too. I’m getting fed up with New York and I’m ready for a change. And I grew up in a small town so I sort of miss that. But then you’ll have someone there who you know has your back. So, let me know when you decide. You still have a few weeks until he’s done with his internship, right?”

“Yeah, there’s a few more weeks until it’s finished, then I’d say he’ll have another week to get everything packed up and sent back. He’ll probably have a little time between getting home and starting work, too. He’s good about making time to be lazy.”

He was smiling fondly by the time he finished talking. He was already getting a bit more vocal than he usually was, comfortable as he was with Boyd.

“This guy, he’s something special, Derek. I don’t need to have met him to pick up that much. Don’t let fear be the reason you lost him.”

“Thanks, Boyd,” Derek said genuinely. And as much as that brought an end to their conversation concerning Derek’s current problem, they still spent about another fifteen minutes on the phone catching up on each other’s lives.

Derek acknowledged that it was unusual for either of them to talk so much, especially over the phone, but after so long without it seemed like they needed to regain some familiarity and connection with each other.

He wasn’t complaining in the least. He felt…lighter after talking to Boyd. More relaxed. More able to face what he’d have to decide. And that was invaluable.

When Derek disconnected the call after they’d said their goodbye’s, he let his hand fall to the couch as he let out another heavy sigh.

Stiles loved him. He told him that the reason he wanted Derek to go with him was because he loved him. And he’d also answered one of Boyd’s questions to Derek: Stiles would regret it if they broke up, just like Derek would.

Part of life was regret, was living with the wrong decisions you made. His mom had taught him that and Laura had continued to try and get him to learn the lesson when it came to being the two of them. They’d also tried to instill that if you knew something was going to end up being a regret, you shouldn’t go through with it. You should find the choice that you wouldn’t regret. Because a life of nothing but regrets was too difficult for anyone to bear and no one deserved to go through that.

Derek owed it to them as much as to Stiles and himself to follow that lesson.

He opened the conversation with Stiles, scrolling up to the last time he saw a message from him and started reading everything that Stiles had sent him over the past few weeks.

His decision was made as soon as he saw that the first text Stiles had sent him in his attempts to reconcile had been hammering home the message that Derek had missed.

_Stiles:_

_I’m sorry Derek. I pushed too hard. But I don’t think what I said was wrong. I love you and want you to be okay. Call me._

_Stiles:_

_Or text me. Just talk to me. We’ll figure it out. Even if that means we’re pen pals for a while._

After that, it really was just like normal messages from Stiles when they’d been dating, passing along random thoughts throughout his day. Derek couldn’t tell if it had been a return of confidence or a loss of confidence that had been behind the steady increase of texts. Without a rapport, messages back and forth, he couldn’t gauge Stiles’ moods.

He reached the last text, the one he’d gotten on the way home.

_Stiles:_

_Behavior analysis classes are my fave. But I think the instructor wants to sign me up for scientific research._

Derek smiled a little, just as he had smiled at some of the texts throughout. He wanted to answer, to let Stiles know that he’d read everything, that he wasn’t cutting Stiles out anymore. But then he remembered Scott had texted him, too. So he left the conversation with Stiles and pulled up the texts from Scott.

He hadn’t been expecting what he read.

_Scott:_

_I don’t care happened between you. That’s for you guys to work out and Stiles won’t tell me. So I’m gonna tell you what he won’t because that’s what he does._

_Scott:_

_You brought out the best in him, parts of him I’d forgotten were there. I’m not happy with you, but I’ll help you if you want it._

An idea popped into Derek’s mind before he really had the chance to acknowledge that while he’d never really considered Scott to be a friend of his, there was never any animosity between them. Sure, Scott could be frustrating to deal with, could be ridiculously naïve, but he was as much of a good person as Stiles was. And if Stiles had been conveying to Scott the sort of willingness to be together as he had with his texts to Derek, Scott would follow along.

So, Derek texted back to Scott first.

**_Derek:_ **

**_I need it. I need help settling things with Stiles._ **

The first step was always the hardest, right?

**Author's Note:**

> As mentioned, this is like a Part 2 of 3. It'll be finished off in the next prompt. I'm getting right to work on it once I finish posting this.  
> Thank you everyone for the kudos and the comments I've gotten.  
> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed.  
> See ya next time.


End file.
